I got a Taleggio mold from Yoav and have one aging. it is a heavy and dense sucker!!! I was a bad cheese momma though and didn't notice the whey collecting in the bottom of box. or maybe ai was trying to avoid noticing because that thing IS heavy! I think/hope it's luck is turning around now.

I got a Taleggio mold from Yoav and have one aging. it is a heavy and dense sucker!!! I was a bad cheese momma though and didn't notice the whey collecting in the bottom of box. or maybe ai was trying to avoid noticing because that thing IS heavy! I think/hope it's luck is turning around now.

Oh man, yes the cheese is heavy. I could get wrist strain if I lift it often! I haven't done a thread because I didn't think it was that interesting. Now that there are mistakes to be shared and hashed out I suppose I could but I haven't learned anything yet as far as if it'll work, how bad my mismanagement was, etc. and I'm short on time. Heck, I even spell it differently each time I post......how sad is that?

I do have lots of photos of a bunch of different makes of cheese but it's so time-consuming to write out the make notes on everything. That idea I had for a new board that's mostly about photos/ show-and-tell would be handy about now. I have nice photos of a cut open Desert Pave (still don't know how to do an accent over that last "e") from Mary Karlin's book, a Belgian ale washed curd (that one is exciting looking!), a recent Tomme that has a nice peachy b linens developing, and several batches of Valencay and Chaource. I will tell you that I brined the Tallegio in beet juice tinted brine and it started out quite pink but lost that later. It' developed various colors and they've been lost when I had to do thorough washings to get blue mold off. It keeps regrowing a slime that I think is appropriate (and has a real name other than slime) but it's still very much a big question mark to me.

Okay, here's a quick glimpse of my recipe. 2 1/2 gal. raw ND goat milk (high solids) (3 quarts straight of goat without cooling), 1/4 tsp. KAZU, 1/8 tsp. MD80, 1/8 tsp. B. linens. floc multiplier was 4 cut to 3" cubes, wait 5 minutes then cut down to 1 1/2" cubes, put in mold. I'm not sure whose recipe I used because although I have Peter Dixon's printed out it doesn't look like what I did. Of course, my milk is very different. I may have used something else from the forum or something from iratherfly? Not sure and too many loose papers to look through in my cheese files. Okay...I'll even attach three photos.....but seriously, check out the thickness of the walls on the mold and rethink using the biscotti tray. The last photo is from Christmas day. It's just been washed and it's still quite wet. Still wondering about this cheese but it smells okay. Hope this satisfies your curiosity. and yes, HEAVY. (and I did not feed my goats lead)

It keeps regrowing a slime that I think is appropriate (and has a real name other than slime) but it's still very much a big question mark to me.

From the Reblochon Chronicle there is this:"As soon as the cheese displays mocasse (Geo slime), it must go through its first wash."

I see the evidence of beet juice coloring. I would presume that if you had used golden beets, you would achieve similar warm coloring as experienced using annatto.

You think the heaviness or brute bulk of the curd would strain my proposed biscotti mould, huh? You didn't press your Taleggio did you?

-Boofer-

Boofer! Your workaround for the accent challenge sounds like something I would (and will now) do!

For a golden color I use yellow onion skins boiled. Makes a lovely golden color. I'll attach a photo of a couple of cheeses I did that way. I was really looking for a peachy color so tried mixing the onion and beet mixtures but it isn't perfect yet. On the second photo the ring of more pale area on the top is where I had a small bowl chosen for it's perfect size that forced the cheese completely under the brine by the pressure of the lid on the upside down bowl.

Yes, I think the brute heaviness of the curd would just blow your biscotti mold to smithereens. No, I didn't press the Tallegio (going with Peter Dixon's spelling this time) and thank goodness. I did have a bit of a mess up (among many) in that I couldn't find info at a crucial moment about whether I needed to line the mold with cheesecloth or not. I put the curd in without and then second guessed (after frantically searching archives to no avail) and took the curd out and did the cheese cloth lining. It did knit fine. (in fact, it knits better than I do) I'll do this cheese again. I also worried that there was too much curd making too high a cheese profile. Yoav thought it would be alright but I do think it's too thick. He's not used to the solidity of curd from the type of milk I use so when I mailed him the photo of the molded and draining cheese he thought it would drain down more than it did. I do have a nifty divider for the mold that will make it be 4 smaller cheeses but didn't use that when I thought I had to do the cheese cloth thing.

Oh, you should see my latest Chaource make. Talk about Geo ripples that look like brains! I'll be fighting the zombies for these!

Hi Schnecken, I used a good handful of onion skins and boiled for a15-20 minutes I think. I strained and added water and salt to make the brine. The color on the washed curd faded to the peachy color you see on Alp's washed curd explanation thread. I washed it with a beet colored wash one day and then uncolored washes and everything faded a bit and then b linens came in. For the Desert Sunset Pave I found that the color stayed and PC grew on top of it. I'd brush that back each time and finally B linens grew and added lots of peachy tones to the golden onion ones. It was quite lovely and is quite tasty.

But I don't want to be rude and hijack Boofers thread of his long journey of Creamy Blueberry Delight.....but feel free to start up a thread on this topic and alert me or jump in on a thread that has these cheeses on it already.....I don't want to interrupt Boofer's mourning or his planning of his next inspiring make!

...I don't want to interrupt Boofer's mourning or his planning of his next inspiring make!

Sob...uh...uh...sob.... What's that? Good Mourning to you!

Thank you for your consideration at my latest blueberry failure. No, no time for mourning. Actually, I think the phrase you're looking for is "crying over processed fermented spilled milk". My attitude is "Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else."

I love the color of your Desert Sunset Pavé. I don't think you identified what cheese style it was though.

Nubbins! I know nubbins!

I have reconsidered and discarded the biscotti tray idea. In looking at the genuine Taleggio mould, I realize that the amount of curd is too voluminous for that little tray. Eh, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

...I don't want to interrupt Boofer's mourning or his planning of his next inspiring make!

Sob...uh...uh...sob.... What's that? Good Mourning to you!

Thank you for your consideration at my latest blueberry failure. No, no time for mourning. Actually, I think the phrase you're looking for is "crying over processed fermented spilled milk". My attitude is "Well, that didn't work. Let's try something else."

I love the color of your Desert Sunset Pavé. I don't think you identified what cheese style it was though.

Nubbins! I know nubbins!

I have reconsidered and discarded the biscotti tray idea. In looking at the genuine Taleggio mould, I realize that the amount of curd is too voluminous for that little tray. Eh, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

-Boofer-

You could probably use a tofu plastic container for a mold.....and make a small Tellagio. My Desert Sunset cheese (avoiding accent issues here by avoidance!) was supposed to be a washed rind sort of cheese. It's from Mary Karlin's book. Okay, my dream cheese recipe book would have the following information:concise recipe that details any adjustments for different types and forms of milk, mold selection info with photos about size, proportion and prevalence of drain holes, info on adjustments needed for extremes in room temps and RH levels, culture options with impacts of choice discussed, and last but certainly not least, LOTS of aging photos with suggestions on what to do to address each possible step or failure. Her book does NONE of that so it's not a favorite of mine. The recipe I followed told me that a crusty rind would develop, it didn't, that it would get soft in the middle at a particular time, it didn't. But it's tasty mostly......just not the cheese I was lead to believe I was making. Of course, maybe I'm too feral independent to properly follow directions.

Okay, now can we work together to come up with a few more spellings of Tellagio? I think I've seen all the normal possibilities on this thread alone!